World Cup streamers "need no TV licence"

I believe I have a solution to your tv licence woes. A tv licence is not required for a "computer" - full stop, end of story. Under Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 692 The Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004, SECTION 11, PARAGRAPH 2A

" (2) In this regulation, "computer apparatus" means apparatus which - (a) is designed or adapted to be used (either alone or in association with other apparatus) for storing or processing data, but not for doing so in connection with the reception by means of wireless telegraphy of television programme services".

Surely in this context, viewing of the odd, or even fairly regular world cup match is legal as long as the dedicated use of the machine is for data processing operations? >{? (This obviously excludes a tv tuner card which would require a licence in its own right.)

So as far as I'm concerned, watch to your heart's content as England continue to embarrass with team incompetence. Sorry, I obviously meant win the World Cup ... "Nurse! My strait jacket please!"

Andy Gardiner

Subject ref streaming media and tv licence

From the TVLA website:

"If your second home is a house, cottage, flat, bungalow or any other permanent building, you need to have a separate TV Licence to cover this address. If you only use a TV set powered by its own internal batteries, you do not need a separate TV Licence."

Also

"Aren't I covered by my parents' licence while I'm away? No. Unless your TV is powered by internal batteries, such as a pocket-sized TV."

So... As I understand, should I wish to take my laptop to university and watch online streams while it's running on batteries then I don't need a license. If I then buy a USB decoder I can watch real TV too! I expect the same goes for taking your laptop to work and watching streams there :)

Simon Casey

L'INQ
Q&A: The TV licence and your PC

Subject Correct use of "Ukraine"

while Spain and the Ukraine were battling it out on a box in the corner. quote

I gather the Ukrainians object to "The Ukraine" - it has connotation of "The Soviet Republic of The Ukraine". After all, we don't talk about "The France" or "The Germany", after all (yes I know it's The United Kingdom of ...)

(Plus "Kraina" translates as "country" - putting "the" in front of it again smacks of "the countryside" - Ukrainians are country bumpkins as opposed to the Russian elite...)

To avoid upsetting Ukrainians everywhere it would be better to write "Spain and Ukraine".

Cheers,
Wol

Subject chip-architect thingy

Not to detract from any of Dr. Freeze's analysis, but didn't AMD already confirm that K8L's cache would be a 32KB+32KB el-one one (similar to core, hopefully with increased associativity) instead of the K8's 64KB+64KB L1 cache? Anandtech seems to think so here:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2768&p=3

(some bloke confirmed in some comments section somewhere or other that the 32B on the slide was supposedly a typo and should have probably read 32KB -- I heard it from reliable sourcerers).

Granted, it's kinda hard to count the transistors and hence gauge the cache size from this angle, but that at least didn't stop him from doing so on the bus widths. Anyhoo, still some interesting stuff, but tell him to update his front page, I was looking forward to some comments from the man himself but he hasn't updated the bloody page for a while now.

EP

Subject Work flexi-time

And I suppose Microsoft UK is a leader in the realm of flexible working hours ? After all, there is an old saying : "practice what you preach". I am really interested to know if MS UK allows its employees to come in at, say 10, and leave at half past three. The rest can be done at home, right ? Pascal.

Subject: digital tables and video projectors

Other than than the touch sensitive table, these systems are everywhere already. what your looking at is a digital whiteboard and projection system inverted through 90 degrees. very cool, very powerful, and if projectors werent so damm large - yes we could all have one.

I remember being at the atei last year (not this year the previouse one) looking at plasma screens being used for virtual pool tables, pinball machines. pretty much anything you want. That much more what you describe - as opposed to this pojection based solution

but thanks for the link
kate

Subject: tabletop interface

I loved the article on table top interfaces (article 32422)!

I remember seeing similiar ideas in movies, but with the knowledge that it was all hand-programmed to just do what the director wanted; ie, there was no functionality.

Something like this would be incredibly useful for a number of professions, and in the future, i hope to have something similiar.

As one of the oldest members of the digital age (im 20), this is the direction i want to see technology take. I cant count the number of times ive banged my hands/head against a hard surface (broken a few of em, to :-P) because I couldnt get elements of a time senstive game/project to do what i needed quickly/easily enough with a keyboard and mouse.

Thanks for the great article, and affirmation that one of my dreams is becoming a reality.

Sincerly,
Chris Clement

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